Avengers (Steven Rogers)

Avengers
Decades later, Rogers' wartime comrade, the Sub-Mariner, stumbled across his still-frozen form, which was being worshiped by a far-flung Inuit tribe. Enraged, the Sub-Mariner threw the ice block into the ocean. While opposing Namor, the newly formed Avengers happened upon Rogers' thawing body and soon revived the legendary hero.

Rogers joined their ranks as the first recruit, since their formation, and was given retroactive "founding member" status in place of Hulk. With his superhuman abilities, extensive training, combat experience, combined with his impressive physique, confidence, and will, Rogers was an excellent addition to the team. As a born leader, Rogers would come to be seen as the heart and soul of the team and his commands, while in the field, were often followed regardless of who might have been team leader at the time. Rogers would teach teamwork, tactics, and hand-to-hand combat to many Avengers over the coming years.

Seeing that Avengers associate Rick Jones bore a resemblance to Bucky, Cap took him into tutelage, trying to recover from the great trauma of losing his wartime partner. After a time, Jones even convinced Rogers to let him wear Bucky's old costume and initiate a partnership, although Cap strongly opposed Rick joining the Avengers as a full member. The early adventures Cap had with Earth's Mightiest Heroes included a run-in with his wartime foe Baron Heinrich Zemo. Zemo organized the first incarnation of the Masters of Evil, a group of super-villains who each bore a grudge against a particular Avenger. After several skirmishes between the two groups, Zemo kidnapped Rick and Zemo was accidentally killed in a rock slide, caused by his own weaponry as he battled Cap.

At this point, the remaining founding Avengers (Iron Man, Thor, Giant-Man and the Wasp) decided to take a leave of absence from the stress of super-crime-fighting. Captain America was thus left to lead a new team comprised of Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. "Cap's Kooky Quartet" was at first regarded as less able than the previous lineup, but soon proved their worth by overcoming several threats including a resurgent Kang as well as Doctor Doom. While the hotheaded Quicksilver and Hawkeye were at first headstrong loose cannons, Rogers' leadership was able to mold them into valuable team members.

When Cap took his first leave of absence from the team, it was the Black Panther who stepped in to take his place on the roster. Though when Cap discovered that one of T'Challa's motives was to "spy" on the Avengers (as part of his duties as King of Wakanda was to observe foreigners), relations between the two became strained and stayed that way for some time. Eventually, they restored the bonds of alliance and friendship, symbolized by Rogers giving T'Challa the enhanced copy of his World War II triangular shield he had used while his round one was broken.

Meanwhile, Cap's old nemesis, the Red Skull, was brought out of suspended animation by the subversive organization THEM. The Skull feigned cooperation with THEM (actually the ruling council of HYDRA led by Baron Wolfgang von Strucker) long enough to steal the Cosmic Cube from subsidiary organization AIM. This led to the first postwar clash between the two great symbols of World War II. The Skull later impersonated Rogers and drove Rick away, while wielding the Cosmic Cube.

Rogers often crossed paths with another World War II veteran as well, this one an ally: Sergeant Nick Fury, of the Howling Commandos, whom he had met during the war, was now Colonel Nick Fury, Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.. Captain America teamed with Fury many times after emerging from suspended animation and their relationship warmed and cooled over the years, depending on various circumstances. They often worked together towards the same goal(s) and the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. maintained a close working relationship, even sometimes sharing a common computer database. Rogers worked with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent 13, niece to Peggy. Rogers would come to share a deep romantic relationship with Sharon, eventually admitting his love for her.

In another plot by the Skull, a Cosmic Cube-empowered man named Sam Wilson attacked Rogers. Steve was able to break Wilson of the Skull's control and the two teamed together to defeat Cap's archenemy. Wilson became The Falcon and Steve's most reliable best friend. Cap and the Falcon would share an active partnership for a long time. Wilson actively succeeded Rogers as Captain America, when Rogers was badly injured and was encouraged to continue on in the role by Rogers himself. Despite the encouragement, Wilson returned the role upon Rogers' recovery.

One of Rogers' and Wilson's most noted battles was against one of Rogers' earlier successors, Steve Rogers, and Jack Monroe, calling himself Bucky. Rogers was shaken at the fact that he could have shared his excessively conservative successor's fate, if not for the technical dedication of Dr. Erskine and his Vita Ray process.

Following a battle with Viper, Rogers' Super-Soldier Serum reacted with the venom in his darts, temporarily granting him superhuman strength.